Cuban Revolution

Fidel Castro led tens of thousands of Communist Party faithful Wednesday in a celebration of the nearly suicidal barracks assault that launched the Cuban Revolution 53 years ago. Organizers estimated that more than 100,000 people showed up for the event. Castro was 26 when he led a ragtag band on July 26, 1953, in an assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago. Although the attack failed, it is considered the official start of the revolution. Nazi files deal reached Millions of Nazi files...

PARIS -- Ceding to protestors' demands, Ukrainian parliament members voted last week to impeach President Viktor Yanukovych and hold early elections, which have been set for May 25. Online "slacktivists," keyboard warriors and various media outlets responded by breathlessly declaring the situation a "revolution" -- and in some cases even proclaiming it a successful one. Except that it isn't at this point. Far from it. Proponents of freedom and democracy...

The newspapers these days are filled with cheerful accounts of investment possibilities in Cuba. Journalists routinely visit Fidel Castro's "tight little island." Even the investment street-smart Wall Street Journal recently ran the headline, "Cuban `Pandora's Box of Capitalism' Cannot Be Shut." The truth is dramatically the opposite. In the month of May, Castro has embarked upon anti-reforms so stunning that the best analysts of Cuba believe that now, the Cuban revolution...

The second half-century of the Cuban Revolution will begin like the first -- with a Castro in charge. But after Cuba toasts that 50th anniversary Thursday, President Raul Castro faces difficult choices on whether to alter that revolutionary vision, choices that will be watched throughout the Americas and especially in Washington. Castro, Fidel's younger brother, has expressed optimism that President-elect Barack Obama might thaw relations and even loosen the U.S. trade embargo.

HAVANA (Reuters) - The Dutch foreign minister signed an agreement on Tuesday with his Cuban counterpart to engage in political consultations, breaking ranks with the European Union which limits high-level visits and talks with the Communist-run Caribbean island. Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, on the second of a two-day visit to Cuba, urged the European Union to adjust its relationship with Cuba, stating, "Havana through the centuries has been a meeting point...

Blas Roca Calderio, a longtime leader of the Cuban Communist Party and prominent figure of the Cuban Revolution, died Saturday, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina said. He was 78. The agency said Mr. Roca, a former member of the party's Politburo and president of the National Assembly from 1976-1981, died in Havana. It did not mention the cause of death. "He is considered one of the prominent figures of the Cuban Revolution, forerunner of the fight for socialism in the country and...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's political career may go on for a while, at least symbolically, even though he no longer holds the country's top political positions. He is still a member of the National Assembly and on Sunday was nominated for another term, despite not having attended any regular sessions during the current legislature and the fact that he is rarely seen or heard from anymore. Elections for a single slate of deputies for the...

Fidel Castro on Monday accused President Bush of "authorizing and ordering" an attempt on his life, although his rambling essay on the subject provided no details. The essay, published Monday in state media, referred to another he wrote May 29 that said, "I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, whom Bush has ordered to be deprived of life." U.S. law now prohibits assassinations of foreign leaders, but the CIA made numerous attempts to kill Castro soon after the 1959 Cuban...

HAVANA (Reuters) - - Cuban heavyweight boxing great Teofilo Stevenson, who won three Olympic gold medals but turned down a chance to fight Muhammad Ali for $5 million, has died of a heart attack at the age of 60, Cuban state media reported on Monday. Stevenson won Olympic gold medals in 1972 at Munich, 1976 in Montreal and 1980 in Moscow and was widely considered the greatest amateur boxer of his time. After the 1976 games, U.S. boxing promoters offered...

Acting President Raul Castro blinked back tears Tuesday as he placed a red rose before a portrait of his late wife, Vilma Espin Guillois, a guerrilla warrior and women's rights pioneer who was the first lady of the Cuban revolution. Castro has governed the island for nearly 11 months while his brother Fidel recovers from intestinal surgery, but Espin, who died Monday at 77, was Cuba's most powerful woman for decades, campaigning for equality among the sexes in education, work and other aspects of...

The second half-century of the Cuban Revolution will begin like the first -- with a Castro in charge. But after Cuba toasts that 50th anniversary Thursday, President Raul Castro faces difficult choices on whether to alter that revolutionary vision, choices that will be watched throughout the Americas and especially in Washington. Castro, Fidel's younger brother, has expressed optimism that President-elect Barack Obama might thaw relations and even loosen the U.S. trade embargo.

- A front page story Saturday referred to the late guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara as a compatriot of Cuban President Fidel Castro. Though Guevara fought alongside Castro during the Cuban revolution, he was from Argentina. - A Dec. 23 story in the Metro Northwest edition incorrectly described Northwest Community Healthcare's property rights to a building for a proposed community center in Palatine. Northwest Community does not own the building and has not signed any...

Cuban President Fidel Castro is very ill and close to death, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said Thursday. "Everything we see indicates it will not be much longer ... months, not years," Negroponte told a meeting of Washington Post editors and reporters. Castro gave up power for the first time in 47 years after surgery July 31 for an intestinal disorder. His brother, Raul, has assumed his duties, but Cuban authorities have repeatedly said Fidel Castro is recovering.

A hair lock snipped from Ernesto "Che" Guevara -- a hero of the Cuban revolution -- before his burial in 1967 sold for $100,000 at auction in Dallas on Thursday to a Houston-area bookstore owner. Bill Butler, 61, won the 3-inch tress clipped from Guevara's mane after placing the only bid, which matched the reserve price. He bid over the phone. Heritage auctions said the hair hasn't been forensically matched to Guevara because of fears of test tampering. But the auction house said...

Who's in it: Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mia Maestro, Mercedes Moran What it's about: This is the true story of Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Bernal), the Argentine revolutionary who suspended his medical studies in 1952 to take a northbound motorcycle trip to experience South America. The plight of the people opened his eyes and eventually led him to Marxism, a major role in the Cuban revolution and his murder in Bolivia in 1967. Worth watching? (star)(star)(star) 1/2 "...